Millie’s Marketing Tips: Coincidences

My favorite moment of this year’s Academy Awards wasn’t the glitz and glamour, although that was fantastic!

My favorite moment was Tom Hooper’s acceptance speech. The director of The Kings Speech shared the power of everything happening for a reason—that there are no coincidences. After congratulating his fellow nominees and thanking the usual list of cast and crew, he thanked his mother. Not the usual thanks for supporting his dream (although I’m sure she did); he thanked her for going to a fringe theater to see an unrehearsed, unproduced play reading in London called The Kings Speech. She had never been invited to a play reading before in her entire life, and she almost didn’t go because it didn’t sound exactly promising. But Hooper continued, thank God she did because she called him and said, “Tom, I think I’ve found your next film.”

Coincidence that she was there at that place in time? Probably not. So my success tip of the week veers off the traditional book-smart tip and reaches into the heart: Look for the opportunities all around you. The chance meetings, the relationships that have been put in your path. Everyone has value—everyone—a reason for being there. We need only to slow down long enough to listen.

I remember re-meeting Athena Elliott at the Chicago trade show several years back now. Initially, I was meeting another friend for lunch and was a bit put off that she had included someone else in our powwow. It only took a few minutes to realize that she and I were so like-minded. We shared so many passions and talked the entire lunch. It reignited our friendship from many years ago, and we ended up working together on Nail Talk Radio. Coincidence? Was it coincidence that I stayed longer at a show to take one more class when I ended up meeting my mentor? How many times have you had these coincidences, or what you claim to be coincidences?

Everyone and everything is put into your journey for a reason. Take time to meet the players in your world. Learn to read them, what they need, who they are, what their gift is. By taking the time to discover others we end up discovering ourselves in the process. So, the next time you get annoyed or bothered by a change of venue or fork in the road, take time to evaluate why the opportunity is there. What lessons might you discover from this coincidence? How can you use it to better yourself and others?